ABSTRACT

Both John of Ibelin count of Jaffa and Philip of Novara include accounts of the ‘Letters of the Sepulchre’ in their treatises on Latin Syrian legal institutions and the workings of the High Court. In his version of the story, Philip of Novara began by explaining that there was a lot of uncertainty about the enacted law, or assises, in the Kingdom of Jerusalem; he then continues:

Things could be done much better and settled far more satisfactorily in the Kingdom of Jerusalem before the land was lost. For all the assises and good usages and good customs, that is to say any usage of great authority, were written down and kept in the Holy Sepulcre, and people called them the ‘Letters of the Sepulchre’ because each assise and usage and custom was written out separately on a large and splendid piece of parchment (en un grant parchement franchois). And also there were the usages and assises relating to the cour des bourgeois along with those of the High Court. And each piece of parchment bore the seal and sign manual of the king and the patriarch and also of the viscount of Jerusalem. And they were all written out in large ornate letters, and the initial letters were illuminated in gold and all the rubrics were in red. The usages and the customs which were put into writing came into being after much discussion, deliberation, enquiry and thought. For after the first assises were made at the conquest of the land, it often happened that when a large number of wise men arrived on pilgrimage the king and the patriarch together with the leading pilgrims and the vassals of the kingdom made new assises, usages, and customs, and in some cases, if it was thought beneficial, they abrogated some of the earlier ones. And if any assise was made with good intent but some people out of malicious subtlety devised a trick whereby it could be circumvented, the trick would be countered and an amendment brought in to stop it. There were many cases which touched on the jurisdiction of the Church, and so the Church of Jerusalem made an agreement that, if certain cases came before it, it would not invoke the decretum, decretals, or laws but would judge according to the usages and assises of the land. And the king and his men were bound to the Church in many matters, much to their common advantage. And whenever it happened that there was an argument in the court concerning an assise or usage, so that it was necessary to see the documents, the chest wherein they were kept could be opened by the hands (a mains) of nine people: the king or one of his leading men acting on his behalf; two of his liege men; the patriarch or the prior of Sepulchre in his stead; two of his canons; and the viscount of Jerusalem and two jurés of the cour des bourgeois. And all this I have heard recounted by many who had seen it before the ‘Letters’ were lost, and from many others who knew all about it, some of whom were those who had had charge of the ‘Letters’ at some time. And all was lost when Saladin took Jerusalem, and never again was an assise, usage, or custom written down. … 1